Tuscan Leather

"Tuscan Leather" opens Nothing Was the Same as a deliberate statement of craft: roughly six minutes long, built in three distinct beat sections, with no chorus at all. It is produced by Noah "40" Shebib (with additional drum programming credited to Boi-1da and Nineteen85, per the album's liner notes), and its sample bed is documented as a flip of Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing" alongside an interpolation of Whodini-associated writers' "Serious" and a Curtis Mayfield live sample. Drake uses the track as a thesis statement — asserting that he is an established force rather than a rising one, rapping continuously through ego, ambition and lineage without pausing for a hook. Critics treated it as a signal that this record would prioritize rapping and refinement over apology; Pitchfork's Jayson Greene singled out 40's production on the album as "audacious" in how far inward it pushes the sound, and the multi-section, transition-blurred build of this opener is one of the clearest examples. Cappadonna of the Wu-Tang Clan is credited with background vocals on the track. It is consistently cited by fans and writers as one of Drake's defining album openers precisely because it refuses to make itself easy.